May 15th Essen/Germany saw an extraordinary Black Metal package featuring the Norsemen CARPATHIAN FOREST as headliner and their fellow countrymen KEEP OF KALESSIN. Both are right now presenting their brand new albums on a European tour. They are supported by Polish brutal blackened Death veterans HATE and this night additionally by the local band MOR DAGOR.
Unfortunately there was not very much attendance, at the beginning maybe 70 or 80 fans were spread over the hall, until the main acts played the number increased to not much more than 120 paying guests. Not very much fort that great billing…

:. MOR DAGOR ~ started on schedule at 19.30 and were already performing their second song, when I arrived due to the heavy delay of my train. It was the bands first gig with a new line-up since they recently added a new bass player and a new guitarist. The two guys already seem to fit well into the band; at least I could not discover any uncertainness or coordination problems. Paced by ex-Belphegor drum monster Torturer, MOR DAGOR delivered pure, fast and brutal Black Metal, with a (especially for an opener) notable good sound. Although the band had „home court advantage“ the audience was not very enthusiastic. Unfortunately.
The set primarily contained songs from the last album Necropedophilia, of which I liked in particular Corpus Christii and Drenched in Blood; both tracks really rock like hell.
After the sixth song it was time to come to an end, a little strange was, that there came no goodbye, the guys simply stopped to play and you only heard a quiet „Feierabend“…
Setlist: Necropedophilia, Infernal Masturbation, Throne Of Flesh, Corpus Christii, Chastised Flesh, Drenched In Blood

:. HATE ~ entered the stage after a short break (Mor Dagor brought their own drum kit which had to be removed) and continued right there, where their forerunners had stopped. Although the Polish band plays merely Death Metal with some Black influence, they all were, in best Black Metal manner, pale rouged and wore lots of barb and spike stuff. They seemed to enjoy being on tour and brought some more movement upon the stage. Yet in front of the stage was still a quite phlegmatic atmosphere, although singer Adam „The First Sinner“ invited the audience more than once to „make some noise“.
After around half an hour of playing time HATE produced some laughter by announcing their last song of the night which lasted less than the announcement itself *g*
After that joke, HATE added a cover version of Slayer’s Postmortem, and finally the crowd got into some movement… Slayer still makes an impact anywhere ;)
Setlist: Anaclasis, Malediction, Immolate The Pope, Necropolis, Razorblade, Hex, The Kill, Postmortem (Slayer Cover)

:. KEEP OF KALESSIN ~ took themselves a little much time to rearrange the drum kit, but as they came on the platform and began to play, they immediately proved, that you don’t need a second guitar to make some unholy noise. They were kicking ass right from start! In support of their current album KEEP OF KALESSIN started with two songs from Armada. Not everyone in the audience seemed to know the new stuff though, and still the public wasn’t very responsive to the band, but that changed as the first older song As Mist Lay Silent Beneath from the 1999 release Agnen – A Journey Through The Dark resounded. Vocalist Obsidian Claw was anywhere on the stage while his companions were headbanging at a stretch. After the fourth song some technical problems occurred, and bass player Wizziac sent a few unkind words to the responsible sound and light engineers… but after short time the show went on with Reclaim (from the EP of the same name). Who had been able to resist until here at latest got in motion now… simply a fantastic song!
Much to my regret KEEP OF KALESSIN hat to leave the stage after exactly 45 minutes without an encore… I’d have liked some more songs!
Setlist: The Wealth Of Darkness, Crown Of The Kings, As Mist Lay Silent Beneath, The Black Uncharted, Reclaim, Winged Watcher, Come Damnation

:. CARPATHIAN FOREST ~ waited until the stage was newly decorated with red flags showing black and white upside down crosses, big banners with Fuck You All!!!, inscriptions at both sides of the stage and so on. To the instrumental tunes of Theme From Nekromantik CARPATHIAN FOREST entered the stage, as usual equipped with draconian corpse paint and costumes. Anyhow, singer Nattefrost looked astonishingly normal in his own terms, wearing corpse paint, a shirt in the same design as the above mentioned flags and the usual leather/spikes stuff. Also the rest of the band put on quite a show, shaking their heads and here an there staging a little wrangling *g*
With their back to the crowd, the band waited until the last tunes of the intro was gone, and then, under the sign of an inverted cross raised above his head by Nattefrost, they immediately unleashed hell. Just after a few seconds they had won over the audience.
Of course the Norwegians played some songs from their new album, but also thrashed through a wild mix of all their earlier releases, including almost all their “hits”. The crowd in front of the stage was in action from the first chord and behaved as if they wanted to catch up on every move they saved earlier. Particularly when older songs like Sadomasochistic, Black Shining Leather or the band’s name giving track Carpathian Forest were given, the audience let fly their hair as one man, while Nattefrost tried to string them up even more, at least when he wasn’t drinking some undefined brew from his bottle.
You may like the band or not, they surely are very polarizing, but in any case, seeing CARPATHIAN FOREST performing live is always an extraordinary experience.
Too bad I had to leave before the end. The setlist I got from Tchort to days later with the words that the order is not for sure since they changed it every night. So if there is a track missing or too much, forgive… ;)
Setlist: Theme From Nekromantik, Knokkelmann, Pierced Genitalia, Mask Of The Slave, Sadomasochistic, Frostbitten Woodlands Of Norway, Morbid Fascination of Death, Vi Apner Porten Til Helvete, Diabolism, Black Shining Leather, Carpathian Forest, Hes turning Blue, The Swordsmen, Shut Up! THere Is No Excuse To Live, Its Darker Than You Think, Skjend Hans Lik, Bloody Fucking Nekro Hell, Return Of The Freezing Winds

All in all, a really entertaining evening full of good brutal music and with a fantastic headliner and also very good support. However, the event had deserved a lot more attendance. But I bet anyone who made his way to Essen was satisfied in the end.

story © seb